Tyrants and Traitors
by veronica.toon.7
Summary: In the end, when the hyenas corner Scar while the fire surrounds them, Shenzi thinks back on the years and about a time when Scar didn't exist and there was only there friend, Taka.
**I've realized I've done a lot of stories over my time on the Lion King branch of the Fanfiction archives, many times doing stories that didn't just come from the main species, the lion, point of view, but I feel as if I haven't gotten much time to explore from the hyenas point of view. I mean they're really the only characters that get so much screen and talking time in almost all the Lion King movies. So this is my reprimation to do a tribute to them for the first movie.**

 **I do not own the Lion King, all content belongs to Disney. I don't own the cover image either.**

 **Enjoy the story!**

* * *

It had been years, several long years infact. Several long years since it had all begun, now only to end and die here, going down in flames.

Literally, as the fire raged and burned the landscape all around them, here she and the few remaining hyenas in her clan stood gathered, surrounding the lion who was the cause of all their despair and misery over the years.

Now he was caught between a rock and a hard place, in-between Pride Rock's stone base and her clan with the fire keeping him trapped. She cherished the frightened look on his face as he realized that all he had built up over the years was crumbling down and coming back to get him.

And she would be the one to lead it all.

Though as she and her team began to strike, for a brief moment though as she stared at his frightened form, she saw not his face, but that of another's. Same fur color. Same mane color, though it was just beginning to sprout. Same eyes, but no scar over the left one. But the expression there, on someone younger then him.

Memories of Taka flowed through her mind. The adolescent, just out of his cub years, had appeared on accident in the Elephant Graveyard, after being dared to go in by his now late, older brother, Mufasa. There he had met her, Banzai and Ed, just barely out of being pups.

Her hardened expression at him nearly faltered as the good times she, him and the others had had in their youth. He never failed to show up, unless he had a good excuse for it. His friendship with them had broken down barriers of stereotypical views on both lions and hyenas. It was a friendship none of them had hoped would fail or fade as the years went by.

In that second of reminiscing, Shenzi realized something. Her eyes focused then narrowed on the lion trembling before her, no longer having the face of someone else younger than him.

This was not the lion she, they, had befriended all those years ago. This was not the friend that always kept his promises. The was a lion who had lost to the side of darkness, reducing him to nothing more now then the faint shadow of his former self.

He was no king, he was never a king. He was just a tyrant who had ruled unfairly and unjustly over the Pridelands, and a traitor to them for not fulfilling his promises made to them at the very start. He was no longer Taka, he was no longer their friend.

And he could exist no longer.

The fake's screams were soon overpowered by the sharp barks of her fellow scavengers and the roaring of flames. He was weakened from the previous battle, thus making this a quick and easy fight to be won. In the end, as she stood above his nearly defeated form, she looked at his face one last time and stared at his expression.

Hurt. Scared. Broken. Just like when he had first met him. For a second, she thought about giving the position to someone else, have them finish it.

But as matriarch, she had no choice if she wished to keep her place and the loyalty and respect of her fellow clan mates. It was the Circle of Life after all, something that perhaps shouldn't had been neglected so long ago now. It might have changed this fate for him and the fate of her clan, but it was too late for all that now. His time was up.

"Goodbye Taka," she thought softly in her mind before the fire covered all.

* * *

 **I feel pity for the entire hyena clan, especially about the treatment they were given. True they are the antagonists and probably mistreated the pride that fed them, but they were just fulfilling their side of the bargain which they never got the favor returned on. I tend to think of them as more misguided than evil, although Janja and his clan in the Lion Guard seem to prove my point otherwise. I don't know, but I do like Jasiri, considering how she brings a certain light to hyena kind on the movie and puts them in a better position.**

 **Interesting fact, the Lion King was originally boycotted by biologists for how the animators portrayed the hyenas compared to their real life selves. Honestly, in real life I actually prefer hyenas over lions because of their lifestyles, but in the Lion King the lions have been made less... graphic, so the hyenas make a close runner-up. Also, if you've been with me for quite awhile bow, you'll notice a little Easter egg at the end their that is a reference to another one my stories.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading. Please leave a review with some feedback, it's always appreciated and I'll see you next time with my other stories. Sincerely, v.t.7**


End file.
